


The Deprived and the Plenty

by taylor_tut



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2017-11-14
Packaged: 2019-02-02 07:52:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12722586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taylor_tut/pseuds/taylor_tut
Summary: A birthday request! Lance is touch starved and trying to deal with it alone, but when he falls in an icy lake, his attempt to subtly work in a high-five every day is thrust into turbo.





	The Deprived and the Plenty

How about both?! Happy birthday!!

Lance grew up in a big family with a small house, and adjusting to a smaller “family” in a huge castle was a big adjustment. It was something subtle, something he hadn’t even noticed at first. In such a packed household, you never sat on a couch without someone’s leg pressing on your own. You bumped arms with everyone you passed in the hallway from the bathroom to the kitchen. Your right arm hit your left-handed sister’s left one as you tried to eat at the table side by side. You didn’t go a day without being accidentally touched.

On top of that, Lance’s younger sisters liked to put little bows in his hair and paint his nails whenever they were bored, which was pretty often between the four of them. 

Needless to say, it was a big adjustment to have his own room and his own bathroom. It was weird to sit so far away from the other paladins when they ate, and it was weird to have such a big couch. Aside from the occasional high five from Shiro or hug from Hunk, Lance was barely touched at all anymore. 

It took a long time for that to take its toll, and even longer to actually articulate the problem. It seemed like something he could fix himself without even roping in anyone else. He’d just instigate more hugs when missions went well, fist-bump Pidge when she finished projects, ask for more hand to hand combat when he sparred Keith, and maybe even braid Allura’s hair every once in a while. 

But it still wasn’t enough to ward off touch starvation. Turns out, several superficial, even accidental touches every day was still somehow better than one or two deliberate ones per week. 

It was getting so bad that he couldn’t sleep. It took a long time for him to even put it together that it was the touch deprivation that was preventing him from getting a good night’s sleep, but he knew that every night he lay awake, he felt cold. 

And then he fell in the frozen lake.

The sleepless nights were breaking his concentration, making it difficult for him to follow directions, and less perceptive to notice the edge of the lake’s beach. He took two steps to the side trying to get a good shot at a Galra soldier when his foot when through the ice and the rest of his body followed. He was standing there, and then he wasn’t. On the surface, then under it.

He couldn’t find the hole he’d fallen through. The icy water was too opaque to see through, and Lance could barely tell which way was up, not to mention the break in the ice. He pounded at the surface with his fists, each passing second making him more aware of how much he wanted to breathe, until his vision started to get grainy and grey out.

Suddenly, Shiro’s metal arm broke through the ice and he was pulled through to the top of the lake. They lay him on the cold ground, waiting to see if he’d begin breathing on his own, but after several seconds, Shiro called for Keith to perform compressions while he breathed, afraid that his metal arm might put too much pressure on his ribs and break him. 

He sputtered awake, coughing out water from his lungs and groaning.

“Oh, god,” he moaned, “shit that h-hurts.”

“Lance!” Hunk shoued, running down the hill to the embankment where they were gathered, “Are you okay? We heard you fall into the water through the comms!”

Lance nodded. “J-just cold,” he stuttered. He was shivering, his teeth chattering so much that it was difficult to talk. 

“I called Allura and she’s opening up a wormhole home,” Pidge informed. “We’ve got to warm him up.” 

“He can’t fly Blue in this condition,” Shiro pointed out, “so Hunk and Lance will fly back in Black with me. We’ll get him out of his armor and start to get him warm.”

Hunk scooped Lance up and held him close, not setting him down until they got back to the Lions and stripped down to his underarmor. He held him close, rubbing his hands up and down Lance’s arms the whole way back to the castle, where he immediately took him to the couch and sat down with Lance next to him. Keith sat on the other side of Lance, cursing when his arm brushed Lance’s hand.

“Shit, he’s really freezing,” Keith muttered, sandwiching Lance’s hands between his own and breathing warm air on them. Pidge brought blankets, settling them over Lance and sitting on the floor by his feet, massaging them with her warm hands through his socks, while Shiro sat on the back of the couch with his hands over Lance’s painful, cold ears. 

“How’re you doing, buddy?” Shiro asked, receiving a yawn in response.

“Cold,” Lance admitted, “and tired.”

“You can go to sleep,” Keith offered. “We’ll be here.”

“Yeah,” Hunk smiled, “I know you haven’t been sleeping super well, lately, so take a nap.”

“Are you guys sure?” Lance asked. 

“Yeah, Lance,” Pidge reassured, “we’ll all be here when you wake up.”

Lance nodded, letting his eyes slip closed with a smile on his face. He fell asleep feeling warm and loved.


End file.
